Friday, August 26, 2011

I have had a busy week with some moments of feeling overwhelmed and its all great cos I am ahead of myself on my Affirmation ABC schedule. Once again, lets hear it for Paint Party Friday I now have enough base papers as you can see - I need to make some more blue ones which I hope to get started today.

The stages to here are many. First cut base paper to size, then wet and scrunch the rice paper, matt varnish the base paper, then smooth wet rice paper out onto varnish and pat gently into place with paper towel. Dry. Then paint with wet acrylics. Dry. Iron the back of the paper having sprayed it with water first. Then paint a design on with a slightly stronger wet acrylic (some of them are too patterned and some not patterned enough in my opinion.) Dry. Iron back again. Scribble on to colour with carefully chosen oil pastels. Varnish with matt varnish. Cut backing paper away and voila! And, the great thing about it is I love doing every process, even the ironing, which I never do with my clothes!

A couple of the stages.

I was going to show you a picture of the backing colours, but I am still doing them.

There is still loads of work. Lots and lots and lots of letters to cut out, lots and lots of working out the best colour combinations (I have already changed the colour combo of the rhino and Tiger) and lots and lots and lots of gluing. I know I should really just do a few pages and send it off to see if anyone is interested in printing it but I really want a finished project so am just going to finish it and then see.
Found another great photo site. It's called pixdaus. The photos don't seem to be copy written but am writing to each photographer, asking to use their image. Hope to get some replies soon.

Friday, August 19, 2011

And for Paint Party Friday I have really got a move on in the last couple of days so I have something to put up. Below are the next two for the ABC. I discovered last weekend that the images I was looking to use for the animals were all going to cost a fortune so then I did more research and found a great site. It's called morguefile and has lots and lots of FREE photographs. The Rhino and Tiger are from there. Does any one have a picture of their cat doing something clever that I can use? I have spent the week trawling through photographs and getting my paper prepped ready for painting and pastelling and today scrambled together these two. Learning lots as I go about sizing etc!

Now dear friends I really want some feed back. Is the lettering OK, does it matter that it's a bit all over the place and not a standard neat font? Does it matter that some words are in different sizes? (FYI the white means you are and like a is on plastic so I can move them around. They will eventually be stuck down with out plastic around them.) Nothing is stuck down yet so there is still room for improvement. The feedback I have had so far for the first two is good, but I am still not sure. I'm concerned that each page too similar to each other to keep adult and child interest for 26 pages. A whole book. What do you think?

And now, to something completely different. I have, for me BIG news. I have decided to go to LA to attend Byron Katie's School for the work in October. I am signed up and have bought my tickets so it looks like a go. I will also go and visit my brother and his family in North Carolina while I am in that part of the world. It's a big thing for me to sign up for. Lots of money being spent!! And I am sure worth it. I have done lots and lots of personal growth things over the years and The Work and the four questions are the best I have found yet. And, It's given me a deadline. I want the book done by the time I go. A few more days of prep, then it's just putting it all together!

Friday, August 12, 2011

Yoo Hoo - I'm back! It has been over two months since I did an arty post on Paint Party Friday.

The exhibition went well. I sold three large paintings @$200, $225 and $250 each and two small @ $90 each. They were all very cheap but at least I sold some. After Australia, my niece is still doing well but getting very fed up with chemo, I went to the 15 day silent retreat. It was very grueling. If you want to read a 'story' version of the retreat, go here!

I have been home for five weeks tomorrow. It's taken me a long time to get into action. I decided at the beginning of the year that I would paint till the middle of the year and use the retreat as a transition time. I am going back to my original 'invention', rice paper, very runny acrylics and oil pastels, to make illustrations for children's books. The art I was doing last year with the paper was very much stuff for children's walls. People don't tend to buy paintings for their kids but they do buy them books. I am sure you can follow my logic here! I am finding my way with an affirmation ABC and this is what I have pictures of today. These are, as I noted in the post title very early days! At this stage, it's really just about me doing something again. Having found it hard to get started I am getting some momentum happening at last. Paint Party Friday has been a wonderful incentive. I was determined to have something to post today and I do! THANK YOU XXX

The pictures don't look as bright as they are in real life. So that is interesting cos printing will do the same thing. Photograph of the Aardvark taken by Beverly Joubert you can find some details about her here